1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a disk device tray. More specifically, the present invention relates to a disk device tray for a disk device.
2. Background Information
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a conventional disk device includes a tray 220 on which two kinds of disk of different diameter (e.g., a small-diameter disk D1 and a large-diameter disk D2) can be placed. The tray 220 has first and second annular support components 230 and 240 formed at two concentric locations of the tray 220. An outer peripheral part of the small-diameter disk D1 is placed on the first support component 230, and an outer peripheral part of the large-diameter disk D2 is placed on the second support component 240.
The first support component 230 has a support face 231 on which is placed the outer peripheral part of the lower face of the small-diameter disk D1, and a cylindrical upright face 232 that contacts with an outer peripheral end face of the small-diameter disk D1 and thereby prevents the misalignment of the small-diameter disk D1. Similarly, the second support component 240 has a support face 241 on which is placed the outer peripheral part of the lower face of the large-diameter disk D2, and a cylindrical upright face 242 that contacts with an outer peripheral end face of the large-diameter disk D2 and thereby prevents the misalignment of the large-diameter disk D2. The diameters of the cylindrical upright faces 232 and 242 of the first and second support components 230 and 240 are somewhat larger than the diameters of the corresponding disks, which makes it easier to place and remove the disks in the first and second support components 230 and 240. Also, an upper end position of the upright face 232 of the first support component 230 is located at a lower level than the support face 241 of the second support component 240. This keeps a recording region of the large-diameter disk D2 placed on the second support component 240 in a state of non-contact with a flat upper face 221 of the tray 220 and prevents it from being scratched or otherwise damaged.
With the disk device, the disk that has been placed on the tray 220 and loaded is clamped by a clamping mechanism and lifted up from the tray 220. Then, the disk rotates in this state, a recording face of the disk is optically processed through the action of an optical pickup or the like, and information is thereby recorded or reproduced. Also, the disk is moved to the tray 220 as soon as it is unclamped from the clamping mechanism.
Furthermore, with the disk device, the depth of the first support component 230, that is, the height H that the upright face 232 rises from the support face 231, is less than the thickness of the small-diameter disk D1. As a result, the tray 220 can be made thinner and, in turn, so can the disk device.
Meanwhile, supporting the large-diameter disk D2 on pads affixed to a tray has been proposed as a way to reduce the thickness of the tray when two kinds of disks of different diameter are used (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2002-230939, for example).
The pads are affixed at a plurality of places on outside of a support component of the small-diameter disk D1. The large-diameter disk D2 is placed on the pads.
With the conventional disk device shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the rise height H of the upright face 232 of the first support component 230 is set to be less than the thickness of the small-diameter disk D1. This allows the tray 220 to be thinner, and in turn allows the overall disk device to be thinner. However, this makes it difficult to ensure that the upright face 232 has an adequate contact height (corresponds to the rise height H of the upright face 232) with respect to the outer peripheral end face of the small-diameter disk D1. Accordingly, when the tray 220 is tilted because the disk device is tilted away from the horizontal orientation, the outer peripheral end face of the small-diameter disk D1 that has been moved from a turntable of the clamping mechanism to the tray 220 upon the unclamping of the clamping mechanism does not always catch on the upright face 232, and instead rides up over the upright face 232. If this happens, the small-diameter disk D1 will shift away from a proper position in the tray 220 (the position where the entire small-diameter disk D1 fits into the annular first support component 230), and the small-diameter disk D1 may catch on a housing frame of the disk device, etc., in the midst of the tray 220 being unloaded to the outside of the housing frame, thereby causing a malfunction.
One effective way of dealing with this is to lower the position of the support face 231 of the first support component 230 and increase the rise height H that the upright face 232 rises from the support face 231. However, if this is done, it may make it difficult to reduce the thickness of the tray 220 and, in turn, the entire disk device.
With the tray having the pads, the height that an upright face of the support component for the small-diameter disk D1 rises from a support face is increased by the thickness of the pads. Therefore, when the small-diameter disk D1 is placed on the support face, the contact area with respect to the outer peripheral end face of the small-diameter disk D1 is larger. However, since the pads have to be attached to the tray, the number of required parts increases, and not only does this make the assembly process more complicated, but the recording region of the large-diameter disk D2 contacts with the pads. Accordingly, even if a soft material is used for the pads, there is still the risk that the recording region will be scratched or otherwise damaged.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved disk device tray. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.